Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Menino wants to suspend the driver's licenses and revoke the vehicle registrations of people convicted of firearms violations. The mayor hopes the stricter laws will not only reduce violent crimes, but also warn police pulling over cars that the driver may be carrying guns.

Mayor Thomas Menino says he plans to travel to Washington later this month to personally lobby new House Speaker and fellow Democrat Nancy Pelosi for tougher gun laws.

Menino said the country has to do more to crack down on gun trafficking and gun-related crime. He said in 2006, Boston police took more than 1,800 guns off city streets, twice as many as the previous year.

"We need to convince Congress to pass common sense gun laws," Menino said to an outburst of applause in his annual State of the City Address on Tuesday night. "Laws that punish immoral gun dealers, and protect our citizens."

Menino pointed to an initiative he began with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg to combat illegal guns. He said the Mayors Against Illegal Guns initiative began with 15 mayors and has grown to 123 mayors in 44 states.

I love when he points to the need for common sense gun control, and then points to the Bloomberg initiative. I'm still wondering when the BATFE is going to actually state that it was just fine for Bloomberg to violate the law with a conspiracy to commit a felony. I'd say there is more, but I'm betting on the BATFE only going for a slap on the wrist for something the rest of us would spend long amounts of time in jail for doing.